Don’t Miss National Pickle Month

July is National Pickle Month and I almost missed it! How is that possible? Well, I didn’t plant any cucumbers this year, but that’s not really an excuse. It’s high cucumber season in the valley. There are plenty available at every farm stand.

As with so many of the skills I’ve picked up along the way, pickling started as child labor. Every summer, we’d drive out to Rhode Island (“home”, although unlike the rest of my family, I never actually lived there) and we’d buy bushels of peppers – sweet and hot – then descend on my Auntie Rosie’s kitchen, with other assorted aunts and cousins, to make enough pickled peppers to last through the winter – of the next 10 years. My job was along the lines of stuffing jars or something equally demanding.

Maybe this is where I learned to love the spectacle of vegetables piled high. I certainly learned to love pickled peppers.

It wasn’t until years later, during a particularly abundant cucumber harvest, that I learned to make simple dill pickles. And bread and butter pickles. And refrigerator pickles….

My father built special shelves for the cellar pantry that were perfectly sized for ball canning jars. When I moved into my current house, the shelves came with me. More than one service person has commented on my bounty, when they went downstairs to work. One actually asked me if they were just for show or if we ate them. Why would someone stack shelves full of pickles and sauces – in the basement?

It’s a little warm to breakout the canning pot, but I can easily get behind the idea of making some refrigerator pickles. It is a national holiday after all. Not doing so would be positively unpatriotic.

So below is my quick and easy fridge pickle recipe. If you have a good one to share, please do. Either email me or post it on Facebook.

Oh, and somehow I’ve lost the knack of pickling hot peppers without them becoming soft. Please, please, please, if you have the secret, let me know.

My Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickles

Refrigerator pickles don’t last as long as processed pickles, but when you’ve got fresh, crunchy cucumbers available, it’s nice to dress them up with a little vinegar and dill and enjoy them immediately. The fact that they take so little effort is just a bonus. You can even start to eat them within a few hours of mixing them up – although they’re better when they’ve been allowed to sit for a day or two.

This is a very basic recipe. If you like your pickles more or less salty, it’s easy enough to adjust. I like the zip of adding peppercorns, but I don’t usually include the garlic. They seem fresher without it. And some folks add a small sliced onion to the mix. Heck, some use zucchini instead of cucumbers. Suit yourself.

1. Wash the cucumbers and slice them thinly (1/8 – 1/4 in. thick). I used a mandolin, which makes quick work of it.

2. Use a squeaky clean jar with a lid. You don’t need as tight a seal as you would with processed pickles, but I would advise a wide mouth jar. It’s easier getting the cuke slices in and, more importantly, getting the pickles out.

3. Add the salt and dill seed to the jar, as well as the peppercorns and garlic, if you’re using them.

4. Next, tightly pack in the cucumber slices to within about ½ inch of the top of the jar. Try not to put them in stuck to each other in a pile. The more surface area exposed, the more evenly they will soak up the spices.

5. Then pour the vinegar over everything, screw the cover on tightly and give it a good shake. The vinegar won’t cover the cucumbers, but as the salt draws the water out of them, the liquid will double and the cukes will then be submerged.

6.Put the jar(s) in the fridge and give it another shake whenever you’re nearby.

Go ahead and give them a try in a few hours. You have to taste test, right? The thinner the slices, the faster they pickle.

As long as the pickles are covered in brine, they should last about 3 weeks in your fridge – unless you eat them all before then.

Comments

If I have lots of beit alpha cukes, I slice them thin like your recipe. Then, in the proverbial non-reactive cauldron I mix one gallon of white vinegar, one cup mustard flour # 1, one cup of fine Himalayan salt and one cup of sugar. Wash several quart, wide-mouth canning jars, keeping them hot. Bring brine mix to a boil. Fill jars with sliced cukes, leaving about an inch of head space. Pour brine over cukes, leaving a 1/2 inch head space. Fix caps. When cooled, put jars in fridge for 30 days. shake occasionally. Taste. If you think dill pickles are strong, try sitting down when sampling these.
When I have a handful of small pickles, I cut off the blossom tip. Then I jam as many as I can into a quart canning jar that was sterilized. I mix three tablespoons of Himalayan salt in one quart of pure water and shake, shake, shake. Put a large pinch of dill weed and a half teaspoon of powdered garlic in the jar. Top with the brine until cukes are covered. Cover jar loosely and leave on shelf for three days, shaking gently once and a while. Then refrigerate for three weeks to two months. Natural lactic acid bacteria will sour these cukes into incredible pickles. Most people will freak out because there is no vinegar and you didn’t process them. More for you! The natural probiotics are actually healthy for you, like sauerkraut, which the same process.

Hi Marie,
You have tried Beit Alpha cukes! They are ‘non-bitter’, thin skinned, parthenocarpic and sometimes called ‘burpless’. (Beit means ‘House of’ in Hebrew, a common name is Socrates F1).
Mustard flour is what we prepared mustard makers call powdered mustard. It comes in 50 # bags. Mustard and Canola are 1&2 or 2&1 in Canada. Yellow fields as far as the eye can see. Mustard flour comes in grades 0-5. Zero is a heatless filler that doesn’t have to be identified on the label. One is “French’s.” And Five, properly hydrated, will take the hide off your tongue. It’s Chinese dipping mustard.
I used to make a sweet(ish) pepper relish. I used red, yellow, green and sometimes a bit of hot peppers. Add too much onion and run everything through the coarsest blade on the grinder. Use white vinegar for more bite and a spoon of your favorite pickling spices.
I see I dropped an ‘r’ in my original comment. Should have been a ‘handful of small picklers’.
Those real dill pickles in the barrel at the country stores are usually fermented. Fermenting is really good for you. Sauerkraut sold in the grocery stores is all chemicals. Real kraut tastes so much better, you may not need a sausage under it. Sauerkraut is cabbage, salt and time. Many gut problems, as well as a surprising number of other ills, are cured by eating fermented foods. Google ‘Wardee Harmon’.

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